If you work/play around regular San Diego, it’s worth considering a smaller house/better location combination closer to town. If you don’t mind spending over $1 million, I think you are going to see some reasonably-good buys in Carmel Valley/Del Mar Heights/PB and hopefully even La Jolla in the coming months.
On the other hand, if you want/need a big house and want better value, Encinitas and Carlsbad offer both, around $200/sf or so.
Simple advice: buy the right-sized house that you can comfortably afford as far south as possible.
You have choices here – either you can buy a TM-built brand-new version of the same house, starting at $840,990 (they bought the tract after it was halfway built-out), or you can opt for this Davidson-built product from 2008 that just listed as an REO:
Many people would find the 3,487 sf flipper on Capuchina in La Costa Oaks fairly comparable to La Costa Valley (it’s only about a mile away as the crow flies). It finally got marked pending today – listed at $739,900 – after 94 days on market.
It makes you wonder where this 3,193sf REO on Camino Serbal might end up. Although the inventory of quality-homes-at-decent-prices has been bone-dry around La Costa Valley for the last few months, it’s not causing people to jump for the ‘bank deals’. This has been listed for 28 days:
This neighborhood is off Carmel Valley Rd., just east of Pardee’s PHR and Rancho Santa Fe Farms/RSF Lakes (and into the Poway school district).
It’s another example where sales have popped this year, like in Fairbanks Highlands next door and Rancho Pacifica. There was only one sale each in 2009 and 2010 (for $1.3 and $1.35), but this year five have already closed, between $1.04 and $1.325 million.
The house sold new for $700,000 on 12/28/01 (though the tax rolls show it built in 2002), and resold for $1,525,000 less than three years later:
